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Diane, I need you to tell me that it's not too late—I, I, I need you to tell me that I'm a good person. I know that I can be selfish and narcissistic and self-destructive, but underneath all that, deep down, I'm a good person and I need you to tell me that I'm good—Diane—tell me, please, Diane, tell me that I'm good—

BoJack Horseman to Diane Nguyen


Introduction

Downer Ending is the eleventh episode of Season 1 of Netflix original series BoJack Horseman. Downer Ending, along with the rest of Season 1, premiered August 22, 2014.

Synopsis[]

BoJack embarks on a project in his typically gonzo style, leading to a drug-fueled revelation.

Plot[]

BoJack and Diane discuss the current status of the memoir with Pinky at his office.

Pinky expresses his satisfaction with Diane's work while imploring BoJack to let the book go to print since Pinky's publishing company is in dire straits having waited on BoJack's memoir's success.

BoJack stubbornly disavows Diane's work and states that he can write a satisfactory version himself before the publishing deadline in one week.

Back at his house, BoJack has a hard time beginning to write. He procrastinates by setting himself up with various distractions. BoJack ultimately decides to contact Sarah Lynn for recreational drugs to help jump-start the writing process. Along with Todd and Sarah Lynn, BoJack binges on the drugs and agree to split up writing the book among the three of them. The process seemingly begins well, but they soon lose sight of the task at hand.

BoJack fearfully confronts Todd again about his sabotage, and Todd tells him again that he has moved on, but has learned not to expect much from BoJack for fear of being dragged down with him. As the drug effects worsen, they begin to get violent, lose their sense of reality, and begin having extreme hallucinations.

BoJack experiences a multitude of hallucinations that explores his feelings for Diane, his fears, and a look into a life he could have had with his old friend Charlotte Moore had he left the entertainment business and moved to Maine with her. It shows they live in a secluded cabin house in the woods, and eventually have a daughter named Harper and happily watch her grow up.

BoJack awakens from the hallucination by a call from Princess Carolyn while he slept in a parking lot out in the rain during his drug trip. She tells him that his version of his memoir he sent her was mainly gibberish and unfit for publishing. BoJack acknowledges this and then goes off to find Diane.

At a small convention for ghostwriters, Diane sits at a panel to take questions from a sparse showing. BoJack shows up eventually and apologizes to Diane, saying she knows what she was doing and that he doesn't mind her version being published since he doesn't care what people think of him anymore. He only cares if Diane thinks he's a good person. He says he knew he did terrible things, but he needs to hear that deep down, he is a good person. He needs to know those things were the cause of his upbringing and terrible parents rather than himself.

However, in coming to terms with his faults and failures, BoJack asks Diane to tell him that he is still a good person inside and pleads with her to give him that sense of security. His question catches her off guard and the two stare at each other in silence, with Diane giving no answer to BoJack's question.

Cast[]

Actor Character
Will Arnett ... BoJack Horseman / Butterscotch Horseman
Amy Sedaris ... Princess Carolyn
Alison Brie ... Diane Nguyen
Aaron Paul ... Todd Chavez
Adam Conover ... Ethan / Guy Who Thinks Ghostwriters Write For Ghosts 
Ken Jeong ... Dr. Allen Hu
Wendie Malick ... Beatrice Horseman
Patton Oswalt ... Pinky Penguin
Kristen Schaal ... Sarah Lynn / Harper / Tori Spelling Fan
Stanley Tucci ... Herb Kazzaz
Olivia Wilde ... Charlotte Moore

Trivia[]

  • For the first five seasons, the 11th episode of the season is very significant and is usually very bad for BoJack. In this episode, BoJack goes on a frenzy trying to get closure from Diane, which end up ruining their relationship temporarily:
    • In Escape from L.A. BoJack reconnects with his old friend Charlotte in Tesuque, New Mexico and he becomes very close to her and the rest of the Carsons over the two months BoJack lives there. But in the end, BoJack kisses Charlotte and tries to elope with her. She pushes him away telling him to leave as he makes her too sad. He leaves to his boat, and Penny follows him. Charlotte sees a glowing balloon floating and follows it and goes onto the boat, she opens the door to BoJack's room and sees Penny is about to sleep with BoJack. Charlotte says, "If you don't get off my driveway in thirty minutes I will fucking kill you [BoJack]."
    • In That's Too Much, Man! BoJack and Sarah Lynn go on a month-long bender trying to make "amends" for people they hurt. They visit Princess Carolyn, Ana Spanakopita, Diane, Mr. Peanutbutter, and Penny before going to Sarah Lynn's favorite place, Griffith Park Observatory, where they stare into the planetarium sky as Sarah Lynn lies on BoJack's shoulders, she overdoses on BoJack's heroin and dies.
      • Although it is worth noting that in Xerox of a Xerox, it is revealed by Biscuits Braxby that Sarah Lynn did not actually die resting her head on BoJack's shoulder that night, but due to BoJack waiting seventeen minutes to call for medical help, she died at the hospital.
    • In Time's Arrow, it is the first significant episode that is not centered around BoJack, instead, it is centered around Beatrice Horseman, and we learn about her troubled childhood, her pressurized debutante ball, and how she met Butterscotch Horseman and BoJack's childhood. In this episode, the existence of Henrietta Platchkey is revealed, who was temporarily the Horseman's housemaid until she was fired for being pregnant with Butterscotches child (and gives birth to Hollyhock). Due to her dementia, she calls BoJack "Henrietta" until she finally recognizes him in the same episode.
    • In The Showstopper, BoJack strangles Gina Cazador, his co-star on Philbert in a drug-induced rage, which leaves her cutting all ties with him.
  • "Downer Ending" is both a quote from the episode and a reference to how the end of the episode can be seen as a "sad" or "downer ending."
  • BoJack's laptop's desktop icons are named as follows:
    • HORSEDRIVE
    • BOJACK FAN CLUB
    • HORSIN' AROUND FAN CLUB
    • "RESEARCH"
    • NOT_PORN
    • DEFINITELY NOT_PORN
    • NOT_PORN_2
    • LETTER TO EDITOR
    • LETTER TO EDITOR 02
    • LETTER TO MORON WHO WON'T PUBLISH MY LETTERS
  • "No Love" by the Death Grips plays at several points during BoJack's drug trips.
  • The "Dr. Who" referred to by Sarah Lynn from Prickly-Muffin is revealed to be a "Dr. Allen Hu," to which BoJack thought Sarah Lynn had been mentioning the character from the British television series and franchise.
    • Prior to this reveal, Sarah Lynn says that Dr. Hu's drugs are "from another dimension," which is another reference to the Doctor Who TV series, which features sci-fi themes such as time travel and, occasionally, inter-dimensional travel.
  • The characters' confusion about "Dr. Who" and "Dr. Hu" that ends with a simultaneous "Third base!" is a reference to the "Who's on First?" comedy routine by Abbott and Costello.
  • One of BoJack's hallucinations involved Diane turning into a gargantuan blob of flesh, referencing the climax of the 1988 anime movie Akira.
  • BoJack's reference to "gremlin rules" is based off the 1984 movie Gremlins, to which Dr. Hu only warned against the first two out of three rules for taking his drugs:
    • No bright light.
    • Don't get [him] wet.
    • Never feed him after midnight, no matter how much he begs.
  • Todd's backward speech is "I'm talking backwards! Aaron Paul is dead," a reference to the Paul is Dead theory.
  • The hallucination in which Diane gives BoJack advice is styled in the form of the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. More specifically, Diane parodies the role of the character Lucy giving advice from a booth.
  • Drug-version Diane has Mrs. Beaversworth's syrup attached to her.
  • This is the third episode in Season 1 that Mr. Peanutbutter does not appear in.
    • However, he appears in BoJack’s hallucinations, including the Peanuts one where he takes the form of Snoopy.
  • According to Princess Carolyn, what BoJack, Sarah Lynn, and Todd wrote on their drug-fueled binge was twenty pages of Doctor Who erotic fan-fiction, recipes of soup, five different 9/11 conspiracy theories, and embedded YouTube links that could not possibly be published in physical book format.

Goofs[]

  • In the scene where Dr. Allen Hu gives BoJack drugs, Sarah Lynn takes them from BoJack, throws the lid off and eat all the pills, but in the next shot you can see all three drug containers filled with pills, with their lid on, standing between BoJack and Sarah Lynn
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